"Percussive Thump" or "A Tale of Two Amps"

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aremick

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So, I have two amps: A Crate "Gunnison" and a "Vox Mini 3"

I get an massive "thump" or percussive effect when strumming.

I can clean it up (mostly) on the Vox by turning the bass way down - Off - on the Fishman Platinum preamp I am feeding it with. But I cant get rid of it at all on the Crate.

The Vox only has a tone control, the Crate has separate bass, mid, and treble. With the Crate I can kill the bass on the preamp and amp and still get the "thump".

(DO we really need bass on a ukulele amp? A low G string is about 200hz - do we need to reproduce anything lower than that?)

For the most part, I see this with my Risa Stick (Soprano), but I also get some on my Cocobolo concert with twin soundboard transducers.

Any thoughts?
 
It's something most of us have struggled with at some point and seems to require a lot of trial and error before you find just the right amp and pickup combo. I don't have it with a LR Baggs 5.0 in a Romero Creations instrument played through a Trace Acoustic Cube or Genz Benz Shenandoah. The Baggs is the best sounding piezo I've owned so I'm slowly converting my instruments over. I've struggled with the thump with other pickup systems and amps—Misi picks up the thumb of my finger too clearly through a Fishman Loudbox and I sold the works and started over. A notch filter is very helpful and I was able to dial offensive frequencies on both my Trace Acoustic Cube and Genz Benz Shenandoah without killing off the bass. If your amps lack a notch you can put one in the effects loop or as pedal. The other thing you might try is another amp. Some are less prone to the thump even with flat EQ.
 
Yes, there's "stuff" that exists below the fundamental pitch of the string. Not a lot, but enough that I'm leery of scooping my bass all the way out. (In fact, I usually turn my bass UP a bit when playing solo.)

The pickup shouldn't be shoving so much bass to your amp. Those RISAs seem to be trouble. Have you tried it with any other ukes?
 
I have 2 other ukes with pickups, both soundboard. I don't get quite the "thump" from either. It is worst with the Risa.
 
Is it a Crate Cimmaron? I've thought about getting one of those. The Gunnison is a monster.

I think my issue is with the pickup though.
 
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So, any thoughts on a replacement pickup?
 
Maybe try various pickups with your amps by borrowing friend's instruments or local shops? Once you find a good sounding no thump pickup, have it installed. That's what I did and managed to try a Pono, Fishman, Misi and Baggs Five-O through my Trace Acoustic Cube. I picked the Baggs and have been very happy with it thus far.
 
Yeah, the Baggs doesn't fit in my Risa though!

(Or the MiSi either...)
 
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They're a little "dear" ($$$) for my purposes...
 
Brad Bordessa said:
Yes, there's "stuff" that exists below the fundamental pitch of the string. Not a lot, but enough that I'm leery of scooping my bass all the way out. (In fact, I usually turn my bass UP a bit when playing solo.)

The pickup shouldn't be shoving so much bass to your amp. Those RISAs seem to be trouble. Have you tried it with any other ukes?
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, the spectrum from my Cocobolo (non-amped) when I strum each string sequentially:

GCEA.jpg

That low peak before it falls off to nothing is at 89 hz; so, yes, there is sound well below the fundamental pitch. But its about 30dB below any of the fundamental peaks...

(The next 4 big ones are CEgA, with E being the highest).
 
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You can usually high-pass a uke without any collateral damage. Those are usually fixed around 80hz. Though when mixing some of the band songs for my last album I would sometimes push it up to 100hz or more. It's the body that 100-200hz provides I'd be worried about carving out with a bass knob on my amp.

It would be interesting to see that same spectrograph with your ukes plugged in.

Kekani: In my experience, a thump sound like that spans a larger frequency range than you can easily cut out. Since it's such a part of the pickup sound, by the time you've eliminated it you won't have much meat left in your signal at all.

PS: Saw Herb the other day at the Waikoloa uke fest. He's running the new Baggs DI, reverb and EQ with the Five-0. Sounded freaking great. Would love to try them sometime myself.
 
Same uke (Cocobolo concert) strings picked, plugged in (running through Fishman preamp), all controls set to 12 o'clock (neutral):
gcea plugged in, neutral.jpg

All the same, with bass cut entirely:
gcea plugged in, bass cut.jpg

Same, Strummed, Neutral:
strum neutral.jpg

Strummed, Bass cut:
strum bass cut.jpg
 
And for comparison,

Risa Stick picked (neutral):
Stick picked.jpg

Picked, Bass cut:
stick picked, bass cut.jpg

Stick strummed (neutral):
Stick strummed.jpg

Stick strummed, bass cut:
stick strummed, bass cut.jpg

For what its worth, the Stick Shadow UST output is FAR below the output of the dual JJB SBTs on the Cocobolo. I really had to crank the gain and the volume. Maybe I need a preamp for my preamp...
 
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